J.K. Rowling

Tattoo is from Harry Potter, in particular the 3rd book – Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

Yes, I’m a huge fan of the HP books, but this tattoo on my left shoulder reminds me of the (sometimes) harmless mischief that I often find myself in. It’s meant to be light-hearted, fun and cute. A little mischief never hurt anyone, right?

This is my Harry Potter tattoo and I’m sure it’s a pretty popular one but the Harry Potter series literally saved my life. The magic in that story was enough to get me through a really tough time, and even now that I am in a much better state of mind, I am proud to call Hogwarts home. Someone asked me the other day if I was still a serious fan and my response was “Always”. That’s when I knew that this would be my next tattoo. It’s a badge of honor, to remind me of a rough patch of life that I got through and that there still is magic in the world waiting for us to find it.

I wanted this tattoo to honor Dumbledore, who has always been one of my favorite characters, and so had the middle line– his wand– be blue so it was the color of his eyes. I quite love it, and though the Hallows have become very popular– didn’t Xenophilius Lovegood say it was worn to announce to other believers that they believe? Well, I believe!

I got this tattoo for a few reasons. I love the books and the magic that they have shared with me and millions of others. The Harry Potter series also bonded me to my dad. I only got to see my father one weekend a month when I was little, but every night that I was at his house, he would read to me from the Harry Potter books. They helped us bond even though we didn’t spend much time together. I decided to get the version of the symbol with uneven lines and imperfections because it was the one copied straight out of the exact set of books that my dad read to me. My tattoo was done at Cartel Ink Works in Carmichael, CA by Aaron. He did a perfect job and was super quick too:)

This tattoo was done by Abel Killian at Lucky 13 Tattoo in Richmond, Virginia. Under the symbol, I have the quote from Dumbledore “I open at the close.” For authenticity’s sake, I had Abel photocopy the quote from the book so that my tattoo was in Albus Dumbledore’s own handwriting. However, I changed the “I” in the quote to “eye,” trying to give the tattoo a second meaning: that fiction is better than fact; that living in a dreamworld is more freeing than anything that life has to offer. This made the authenticity of Dumbledore’s handwriting more difficult to achieve; I had to search all seven books until I found “eye” in his pencraft.

“All was well” is the last sentence of the story that defined a big part of my childhood and even my adult life until now, so I wanted it as a tribute to Harry, Ron, Hermione and all the other wonderful characters J.K.Rowling created.

I also think that good stories must have a happy end, and until now, my life was a pretty good story so I hope someday it will end with a happy end and a sentence like this.

The tattoo was done by Markus from “Tattoo Theater” in Munich, Germany.

To me, it means that no matter how much crap life throws at you, if you have good people around you, and you keep fighting, everything’s going to be okay.

This belongs to Julia.

I got this tattoo because I feel that the sentiment that things can always turn out well in the end is a great life motto, because it is an iconic “Happy Ending phrase” that expresses my love for the storytelling tradition, and because I have loved Harry Potter for almost a decade now. I began to draw because of these books, and I will graduate from art school as a graphic designer, illustrator and book artist this summer. Without HP, it is very likely I would not have chosen that path.

Plus, I designed the font (almost) myself. It’s as close to Jane Austen’s (another author I love… that woman knows character interaction) handwriting I could get. I used the webfont as a base and then tweaked it into perfection in Illustrator, using prints of Austen’s letters for reference.

I absolutely love Harry Potter. I grew up with it as a child, and with this I will hold on to my childhood as I grow older. Not only is this from the book, but it expresses that truly, after all this time, I will always love Harry Potter.

I grew up with the Harry Potter series. I was around 9 when I read the first book, 10 when the movie came out, and you can imagine my dismay at not receiving my own letter. Dumbledore says this at the end of chapter 3 in Half-Blood Prince. This quote always stuck with me. It became a kind of mantra. For isn’t adventure a flighty temptress? She beckons but she will not come to you, you must go to her. This tattoo is a constant reminder to me that I cannot simply wait around and hope something wonderful or exciting will happen, I have to make these things happen for myself. I need to pursue that flighty temptress.

The font is Lumos, a kind of variation on the font used for chapter names in the books.

Dumbledore then waved his wand again, and the front door opened onto cool, misty darkness. “And now, Harry, let us step out into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure.”